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Aloha and Two Days, One Night arrive on DVD

Cameron Crowe once had a gift for memorable screen moments, where meaning was perfectly expressed. It seemed effortless, but around about the time Elizabethtown flatlined a decade ago, strain began to show.

And now it’s hello (and goodbye) to Aloha, a dismal attempt to marry screwball comedy with socially aware drama, set in a Hawaii midway between 1950s tourist kitsch and 21st-century environmental angst.

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Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone are the nominal stars, but their twinkle is dimmed by the many bright lights surrounding them — Bill Murray, Rachel McAdams, Alec Baldwin, John Krasinski and Danny McBride — in a story about military/industrial interests versus cultural concerns that is too diluted and disjointed to serve this much talent.

If Crowe actually knew what he wanted to do with his gaggle of stars or his narrative, Aloha might have something going for it. But he doesn’t, and you can actually feel him flailing as he struggles to link comedic and dramatic sequences that either fall flat or make little sense.

Pop tunes by the Who, Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Presley, Beck and others, once so organic to a Cameron Crowe movie, now feel like desperate padding.

Extras include an alternate opening and ending, deleted scenes and four making-of featurettes.

Two Days, One Night

Marion Cotillard earned an Oscar nomination as a factory worker fighting for her job and dignity in a film of modest design yet major impact. Frank Capra would have been happy to put his name to this movie.

Directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne prove once again that they are auteurs of everyday strife as they follow Sandra (Cotillard), who has been on sick leave for an unspecified period fighting depression.

In an economic Catch-22, Sandra has the weekend to persuade her co-workers to vote to keep her employed versus voting for a raise. She soon learns it’s a struggle between good intentions and self-interest.

The scenario is completely believable in today’s predatory global market, where the fewest number of workers doing the most work for the least cost is every employer’s ultimate goal.

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